Boardwalk Empire: "Resolution" Review

A more ruthless Nucky makes a new enemy.

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September 16, 2012

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

Picking up the story a significant amount of time after the shocking and brutal events of the Season 2 finale, Boardwalk Empire delivered an engrossing, undeniably Boardwalk-ian premiere in the form of "Resolution." With many wrongdoers on the show, including Nucky, looking to shake out their dirty rugs and clean up loose ends before the New Year's clock strikes twelve, with naive hopes of kicking off 1923 on the right foot, this premiere kicked things off with two killer opening scenes. One that introduced us to Bobby Cannavale's psychotically temperamental mobster Gyp Rosetti and another that showed us a brand-new, killer edge to Nucky.

Firstly though? Rosetti. Wow. I mean, we've seen mobsters kill and maim for small offenses before. Joe Pesci built a movie career on it. But Rosetti takes this to a whole new level after he kills an innocent man -- who was helping him fix a flat tire, by the way -- for an offhand, folksy remark that meant nothing. Even after the guy sincerely apologized for it. From this one scene we discovered that Rosetti was a man who expected the world to bend and bow to him, no matter where he was a guest or a tourist. And you could just see the look on Rosetti's guys faces after the man said "What else?" to him. Hell, Rosetti would have even beat the famous Eddie Cantor to death later on in the episode if he could have gotten away with it. With the exciting addition of Cannavale's crazy new Sicilian crook one gets the feeling, after the way Rosetti gets in Nucky's face at the end, that Nucky's home and family might be in serious jeopardy for the first time.

Last year, Jimmy Darmody and his gang were only out to take Nucky down. By any means, be it violence or incarceration. The way that Rosetti looks at Margaret at the end, and hands her the dog he took off the old man he killed in the opening scene, you can't help but feel like Nucky's whole world is about to burn. Also, Rosetti's a killer on the mic too, letting loose with insults and nicknames like calling Lucky "short pants," Rothstein a creepy, looming dentist and Nucky a "bread stick in a bow tie."

Now, over to Nucky, who re-entered our lives by convincing a booze thief that he was kind and forgiving, just to get the name of the man's accomplice. Just so he could then have the guy executed. And the reason the scene worked is because we could all totally buy that Nucky was going to let the guy go. Because that was the old Nucky. A criminal, yes. But not needlessly sadistic. Some would say diplomatic to a fault. But Season 3's Nucky is all-gangster, as the tagline's on the HBO poster suggests. He's no longer city treasurer, instead doing the old (or pioneering the new) "crime boss hiding behind the philanthropist title" thing. "Resolution" may have spent most of its time catching up with most of the show's remaining characters, with little in the way of forward drive, but it can also be looked at as a long day in the life of Nucky that leads up to the reveal that his and Margaret's marriage is now, after all this time, a sham. With affection shown only in public and at their extravagant galas.

Yes, after Margaret signed Nucky's hard-schemed legacy money over to her church, creating Atlantic City's first-ever pediatric ward in the process, it's all been downhill for the Thompsons. In fact, most of Nucky's resentment probably lies in the fact that he now has to be a full-time bootlegger crime lord, whereas before he could have retired. So, in a very direct sense, Margaret sacrificed their future happiness and a safe life of leisure because of her guilt. And caused him to be even more of a criminal than ever before.

Wives of TV's anti-heroes (Skyler White, Rita on Dexter, Lori on Walking Dead) always, always have an uphill battle, but Margaret's been a thorn in Nucky's side since the end of Season 1. And the moments she's worked against him now far outweigh any support. And the fact that she's the one who initially came to Nucky for help just makes things worse for her, from a "rooting for" standpoint. Margaret's daydreaming, about the 30 hours of soaring freedom being experienced by female pilot Carrie Duncan (while Marion Harris' "There'll Be Some Changes" played us out), fits with the theme of her feeling trapped within a fake world of opulence. But it's also a world that she's chosen to be in, many times over, over the alternative.

Manny's death, during the final moments of the episode, might have been an easy one to call, but I was surprised at who killed him. One could feel the impending doom creeping in after two scenes of Manny and his wife being extra-sweet to one another, but I expected Rosetti or his men to be the one launching an attack, given how eager he is to dispatch of those who disrespect him. But it was sweet, sweet Harrow who came to deliver a shotgun blast to Manny's face. The "old friend" he told Gillian he was seeing that night. Payback for Jimmy perhaps. Or Angie. Harrow continues to the be the lovely, gravel-voiced beating heart of this show. The grotesque poetry of the series. The easiest guy to root for over everyone else, yet the man with the least problem killing those in his way. He simply breaks your heart with every scene he's in. And Harrow's love for Angie sill remains as he tried, unsuccessfully here, to make Tommy remember her before Tommy inevitably gets sucked into Gillian's vortex of selfish dysfunction.

Over in Chicago, things played out a little more TV-ish, with Van Alden, now a door-to-door iron salesman, inadvertently saving the life of Irish mobster Dean O'Banion (at least until November 1924 anyhow, right History?) from an insulted Al Capone. Al Capone who was actually insulted by O'Banion, if we're looking to somehow justify all this killing-in-the-name-of-respect stuff. It's fun to see a guy like Van Alden so beat down and humbled, after two seasons of suffering his "high-hat," but it wasn't clear where he was headed until the end, when he winds up losing the sales competition due to some BS misunderstanding. Now, more pressed for money than before, Van Alden will probably take O'Banion up on his job offer. The most rewarding, and amusing, touch to Van Alden's tale was his use of the Couéism "Every day, and in every way, I am becoming better and better." It might be part of his sales routine, sure, but I find it interesting that a narrow mind such as Van Alden's would opt into French psychotherapy.

Boardwalk's blueprint of a slow-burn mini-mob movie each week might not grab viewers the way shows like Breaking Bad and Game of Thrones do, but last season rounded itself out with some of the best and gripping TV of that year. From "Resolution," we can assume perhaps that Nucky's now in Gyp Rosetti's line of fire and that Attorney General Harry Daugherty's corruption hearings will play a factor going forward, but not much else. Will Nucky actually be the one to further instigate, blaming Rosetti for Manny's death? With his new killer-sheen, it's hard to imagine him not blindly retaliating.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!